According to Hesiod’s Theogony (116-124), at the very beginning of time existed Chaos. From Chaos emerged foundational Gaia (earth), then Tartaros (beneath the earth), and then Eros (love).

Eros is the two-natured, that is, bi-sexual deity who sprang from the world’s egg at the beginning of creation.[1]

“Eros was one of the fundamental causes in the formation of the world, inasmuch as [s]he was the uniting power of love, which brought order and harmony among the conflicting elements of which Chaos consisted.[2]”

Eros is the immortal deity of the force that brings things together, in contrast to Eris/Strife, the immortal force that pulls things apart:

Empedocles quotes Hippolytus as saying, “For when the things which come to be by strife’s agency die, love receives them and draws them towards, puts them with, and assimilates them to the universe, so that the universe might remain one, always being organized by love in one manner and form.”[3]

In later characterizations, Eros is a winged deity with a bow and arrow who pierces mortals and immortals with the arrow of love, leading to obsessive, inexplicable longing.

The Greek word “phaulous (Φαύλους)” which means paltry, is a homonym of “phallus.”